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« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2017, 12:43:33 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Digest 3-22-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
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Quite the opposite26.
As religious observance on the right and the left has eroded, studies show Christianity has been replaced not by a benign, tolerant multiculturalism, but increasingly polarized forms of tribalism. The Right embraces populist nationalism, the Left embraces identity politics. Absent the tempering influence of Christianity, which preaches love for fellow man, forgiveness and charity, the non-religious on both sides take a darker view of America’s future, and increasingly see each other as not decent people with differing opinions, but as fundamentally bad people.
Why is this?
As Peter Beinert writes27 this month in The Atlantic, “Establishing causation is difficult, but we know that culturally conservative white Americans who are disengaged from church experience less economic success and more family breakdown than those who remain connected, and they grow more pessimistic and resentful.”
Beinert notes the political Left is not exempt from such dystopian thoughts, noting, “White Democrats who are disconnected from organized religion are substantially more likely than other white Democrats to call the American dream a myth.” Likewise, the Black Lives Matter movement shuns peaceful protests like those led by black Christian clergy such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which was so successful in changing the hearts and minds of Americans during the civil rights movement.
While the causation of the ebbing of Christianity can be debated, the effects are quite clear. Politics is too often a zero-sum game — we win, you lose. And with politics infecting every aspect of American life, and religion on the decline, is it any wonder Americans have become more factional, more confrontational, and more polarized?
The political Left sees the populist nationalism of Donald Trump as a scary, dangerous development, claiming his supporters seek to harm and subjugate all who don’t share their views or pigmentation. Yet leftists don’t seem to grasp that the Trump phenomenon is in many ways a push-back against the Left’s hypocritical demonization of its opponents. The irony of insulting and assaulting people28 as you lecture them on how dangerous their views are is lost on the Left.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s shocking election upset, progressives around the nation poured into the streets, rioting, assaulting Trump supporters, breaking windows, looting, and setting cars and buildings on fire. On college campuses, the bastions of leftist orthodoxy and indoctrination, students and even faculty routinely give tacit approval, and outright encouragement, to the sentiment that physically harming those with whom they disagree is justified.
George Washington called religion and morality the “indispensable supports” of the American republic. John Adams declared the Constitution “wholly inadequate” to govern any but a moral and religious people. And British statesman Edmund Burke warned, “Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their appetites. … Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”
Without the peaceful influence of religion, Americans gravitate toward a darker view of their country and their fellow man. Trust, civility and goodwill recede, replaced by a lust for power to secure to each the enforcement of his or her worldview.
Beinert closes his analysis by saying, “Maybe it’s the values of hierarchy, authority, and tradition that churches instill. Maybe religion builds habits and networks that help people better weather national traumas, and thus retain their faith that the system works. For whatever reason, secularization isn’t easing political conflict. It’s making American politics even more convulsive and zero-sum. For years, political commentators dreamed that the culture war over religious morality that began in the 1960s and ‘70s would fade. It has. And the more secular, more ferociously national and racial culture war that has followed is worse.”
Christianity in America is certainly not dead, but its influence has lessened and, as a result, the public discourse has become less civil. A restoration — a revival, if you will — of the Christian spirit is sorely needed.
As Dennis Prager put it29, “If you want a good world, the death of Judeo-Christian values should frighten you.”
MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST
The People’s Republic of California30 — Will the #Calexit movement gain enough momentum?
Feinstein’s 'Super Precedent’ Myth31 — The Constitution is malleable but abortion is forever set in stone?
If There Is No God, Murder Isn’t Wrong29 — Dennis Prager on why “if you want a good world, the death of Judeo-Christian values should frighten you.”
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
Ben Shapiro: Why Does It Feel Like Everything’s a Scandal?32
Star Parker: A Nation of Law, Not Politics, With Gorsuch33
Walter Williams: Transgender Challenges34
For more, visit Right Opinion35.
OPINION IN BRIEF
Ben Shapiro: “In an era in which half of the population will believe virtually everything about the other side, we’re primed for scandal all the time. The tinder of scandal is dry, and everyone is just waiting nervously for a lit match to set the blaze. That means a whiff of scandal pervades nearly everything. … Those on the Left willing to accuse President Trump of Kremlin connections sans evidence earn the love and support of those on their own side of the aisle; and those on the Right willing to humor Trump’s most extreme claims about Obama’s wiretapping gain clicks and admiration on their side. The result: Those who suggest that we wait for evidence are seen as gullible, naive. … If this leads to an American return to smaller government — hey, we can’t trust anybody anyway, so let’s stop handing them power — this new paranoia might be acceptable. But it won’t. Instead, Americans seems bound and determined to hand power to those on each side who are most apt to identify the nefarious intentions of those on the other side, with or without evidence. That’s a recipe for not only polarization but also political breakdown.”
SHORT CUTS
Insight: “The world is governed more by appearance than realities so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it.” —Daniel Webster (1782-1852)
Upright: “The Book of Exodus says, regarding judges, ‘Do not follow the majority for evil. … Do not glorify a destitute person in his grievance.’ And, in Deuteronomy, ‘You shall not pervert judgment, you shall not respect persons, and not take a bribe.’ What really bothers liberals is that the original text of our Constitution is rooted in an even higher source — the Judge of our judges. At the conclusion of the Declaration of Independence, the founders appealed ‘to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions.’ Judge Neil Gorsuch will extract our law from the whims of politicians. His appointment to the Supreme Court is an important step to ‘make America great again.’” —Star Parker
Non Compos Mentis: “There’s a cloud now hanging over the head of the president, and while that’s happening — to have a lifetime appointment made by this president seems very unseemly and there ought to be a delay.” —Chuck Schumer
Legacy: “President Obama was the president of the United States until just a matter of a [few] weeks ago. I don’t think he can be dismissed as the leader of the Democratic Party.” —Nancy Pelosi
Late-night humor: “There were … several March Madness upsets this weekend, with Wisconsin taking out top overall seed Villanova, and Michigan beating Louisville. I haven’t seen Wisconsin and Michigan knock out the favorite since … the election.” —Jimmy Fallon
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Managing Editor Nate Jackson
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